Today, the Ministry of Economic Development, in collaboration with Caribbean Development Bank, unveiled a 12. 8 million-dollar project which will fund poverty alleviation projects around the country.
It is a very welcomed relief because according to the statistic, the countries poverty and unemployment rates are at all-time highs.
It's part of CDB's Basic Needs Trust Fund, and today 7News spoke to one of the bank's representatives about how this funding was granted to Belize.
Hon. Santiago Castillo - Minister of State/Economic Development
"First of all, it's the first one that the CDB is doing;it's a big one and it's $12.8m through the Basic Needs Trust Fund, 7th tranch. It's being done through SIF, and it's all geared towards poverty alleviation for those people who need it the most. So that is what makes it very interesting and that together with the $30m that we had already gotten through the SIF Program. That's a lot of money that will be invested to the poorer sectors of Belize. It will be in areas such as education, housing, those areas that we feel need it the most to uplift Belize more or less as best as possible with the funds that we have through this program. Clearly we are very grateful to our partners at Caribbean Development Bank, who in their speech today mentioned that Belize is one of the countries that has shown the best economic recovery."
Darran Belgrave - Representative, CDB
"Well the Basic Needs Trust Fund is a poverty reduction program. It's the main instrument of the Caribbean Development Bank, attacking poverty in our fellow member countries, so Belize will automatically qualify. As long as you have vulnerable communities and other challenges being faced by the poorest people, then definitely that's a main criteria to be involved in the program. As I said, it's a critical part of our sustainable development strategy and for poverty reduction."
The Stakeholders will now participate in a 2-day workshop in relation to this new project.
Email
Print